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“Jeff Sessions has been forced out as attorney general. “At your request, I am submitting my resignation,” Sessions wrote to the president Wednesday. President Trump tweeted the news, writing, “We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well!”

A senior Justice Department official said that White House chief of staff John Kelly called Sessions to request his resignation. The president did not call him. Sessions has repeatedly come under attack by Mr. Trump for recusing himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Matthew G. Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff, will now become acting attorney general, and he will also oversee the Russia investigation that the president often refers to as a “witch hunt.” Before Whitaker joined to the Justice Department, he wrote an opinion piece for CNN in August 2017 criticizing the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Whitaker argued that Mueller should not be able to investigate the Trump family’s finances in the course of his probe. “It does not take a lawyer or even a former federal prosecutor like myself to conclude that investigating Donald Trump’s finances or his family’s finances falls completely outside of the realm of his 2016 campaign and allegations that the campaign coordinated with the Russian government or anyone else. That goes beyond the scope of the appointment of the special counsel,” Whitaker wrote.”

CHICAGO — The head of the Chicago Police Department has been fired amid widespread criticism over how authorities responded to the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer last year.

Hat tips to Roderick2012 and Gronda. Published by Press This

Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) said he formally asked Garry F. McCarthy, the Chicago police superintendent, for his resignation on Tuesday morning, a week after video footage of the shooting was released and the officer was charged with murder.

“He has become an issue, rather than dealing with the issue, and a distraction,” Emanuel said. He added that while he is loyal to McCarthy, whom he praised for his leadership of the department, the needs of the city are more important.

Anger has erupted in Chicago since authorities released footage of Jason Van Dyke, a city police officer, shooting Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old, last year.[Officer Van Dyke posted bond and was released Monday] Emanuel said he began talking to McCarthy on Sunday, after several days of heated protests, about “the undeniable fact that the public trust in the leadership of the department has been shaken and eroded.”

The end of McCarthy’s time atop the Chicago force marks a abrupt shift for a law enforcement officer who became nationally known as he worked in three of the country’s biggest police departments. When Emanuel announced McCarthy’s appointment in May 2011, he praised him as someone who proved “reducing crime and working closely with the community are not conflicting goals. ” Read the rest of this entry →

It’s a case that did not get much attention outside of the Florida. In or about April 2012 after George Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder for killing unarmed 17-year old Trayvon Martin, I began researching stand your ground cases in Florida. Smithey’s case was one of several that caught my attention, along with the cases of John Orr, and Trevor Dooley.

On May 4, 2010, Smithey shot and killed Robert Cline III, her estranged husband. She claimed that he was raping her after they had consensual sex, and cut her throat and stabbed her in the side. Smithey claimed that she shot Robert once in the chest. The medical examiner however, said that there were two entrance wounds. Read the rest of this entry →

48 year old Rock Island County Sheriff, Jeffrey Boyd, was up for re-election. He has now withdrawn from the race.

On September 11, 2014, Boyd pled guilty to one count of attempted official misconduct based on attempted cyberstalking. As part of his guilty plea, he resigned and forfeited the pension he earned during his term as Rock Island County Sheriff.

The case was referred from the Illinois State Police to the Public Integrity Bureau for the Illinois Attorney General’s office. It was prosecuted by the Public Integrity Bureau Chief David Navarro and Bill Elward of the Trial Assistance Bureau. Read the rest of this entry →

Miami Gardens’s first and only police Chief, Matthew Boyd, unexpectedly resigned on December 10, 2013, one day after the NAACP called on United States Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to conduct a review of the Miami Gardens Police Department which Boyd resided over. While spokespeople for the Department as well as Mayor Oliver Gilbert insist that any correlation between Boyd’s resignation and the NAACP’s letter to Holder is purely coincidental, the timing is certainly noteworthy. Chief Officer Boyd was expected to announce his plans for retirement late in the month of January, 2014 – a month after he resigned.